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Meanwhile, Trump is pushing the Commerce Department to save ZTE. Quid pro quo for China;s help with the Trump branded development in Indonesia?

Trump’s sudden support for Chinese company just became awkward, thanks to his own nominee

“The report concluded that the risks associated with ZTE’s provision of equipment to U.S. critical infrastructure could undermine American national security interests,” Wyden said. “Do you agree with that bipartisan support?”

“Senator Wyden, I do,” Evanina replied.

“They recommended that the United States should view with suspicion the continued penetration of the U.S. telecommunications market by ZTE. Do you agree with that?” Wyden followed up.

“Yes,” Evanina said.

Wyden tried to get Evanina to comment on Trump’s tweet, but he declined. Later, however, Evanina told Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) he wouldn’t use a ZTE phone and would recommend that anyone in “any sort of position that is sensitive” avoid using them as well.

I may have been wrong in saying that the celebration surrounding the embassy opening could have lessened the death toll. Maybe if they’d quietly ramped up the opening over five or six months to dimmish the manic nature an event creates even with a 6 week planned duration.

2018 Gaza border protests - Wikipedia

“On 30 March 2018, a six-week campaign composed of a series of protests was launched at the Gaza Strip, near the Gaza-Israel border. Called by Palestinian organizers the "Great March of Return", the protests demand that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to what is now Israel.”

Palestinians say over a dozen killed in Gaza border protest | World news | The Guardian

“At least 16 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza, Palestinian medics have said, as protesters kicked off a planned six-week demonstration demanding the right of return for refugees.

Israel’s military said 17,000 Palestinians were “rioting” in six locations in the Gaza strip on Friday, rolling burning tires at the security fence and its troops, which it said responded “with riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators”.

On Friday night, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for an independent investigation into deadly clashes as the Palestinian ambassador, Riyad Mansour, voiced his disappointment that the security council did not condemn what he called a “heinous massacre” of peaceful demonstrators.” ...”

I may have been wrong in saying that the celebration surrounding the embassy opening could have lessened the death toll. Maybe if they’d quietly ramped up the opening over five or six months to dimmish the manic nature an event creates even with a 6 week planned duration.

2018 Gaza border protests - Wikipedia

“On 30 March 2018, a six-week campaign composed of a series of protests was launched at the Gaza Strip, near the Gaza-Israel border. Called by Palestinian organizers the "Great March of Return", the protests demand that Palestinian refugees and their descendants be allowed to return to what is now Israel.”

Palestinians say over a dozen killed in Gaza border protest | World news | The Guardian

“At least 16 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza, Palestinian medics have said, as protesters kicked off a planned six-week demonstration demanding the right of return for refugees.

Israel’s military said 17,000 Palestinians were “rioting” in six locations in the Gaza strip on Friday, rolling burning tires at the security fence and its troops, which it said responded “with riot dispersal means and firing towards main instigators”.

On Friday night, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, called for an independent investigation into deadly clashes as the Palestinian ambassador, Riyad Mansour, voiced his disappointment that the security council did not condemn what he called a “heinous massacre” of peaceful demonstrators.” ...”

It is always hard to speculate in hypotheticals. The deaths in the protests resulted from the actions of the military there, so you could say it wasn't because of the opening of the embassy. However, if the embassy wasn't opened, it is likely there wouldn't have been protests there that day.

I think that whether the opening was done quietly or covertly the Palestinians would have still noticed and probably still would have protested it. However, if it was not as visible or high profile, it is possible the protests would have attracted fewer people and perhaps the military would have responded differently to a smaller or quieter crowd. However, it is also true this is not the first protest with deaths in this region. There is a long history of animosity and conflict here which is easily triggered or escalated.

From "I know nothing about a payment to Stormy Daniels" to "Oh, you mean that $130,000. Totally slipped my mind."

BREAKING: Trump admits debt to Cohen for Stormy Daniels payoff
After months of denials, the president finally acknowledges the truth.

In a federal financial disclosure released Wednesday, President Trump acknowledged his $130,000 debt to his attorney, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

In last year’s form, Trump did not acknowledge the debt, which watchdog groups and ethics advocates say is a violation of federal law.

Most of the protesters killed this week by Israeli fire along the border with the Gaza Strip were members of Hamas, the militant group said Wednesday, an admission that deepens the starkly different narratives on both sides over the deaths.

From "I know nothing about a payment to Stormy Daniels" to "Oh, you mean that $130,000. Totally slipped my mind."

BREAKING: Trump admits debt to Cohen for Stormy Daniels payoff
After months of denials, the president finally acknowledges the truth.

In a federal financial disclosure released Wednesday, President Trump acknowledged his $130,000 debt to his attorney, Michael Cohen, for a hush money payment Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

In last year’s form, Trump did not acknowledge the debt, which watchdog groups and ethics advocates say is a violation of federal law.

The problem with this is that it’s not related to the original issue of potential Russian collusion. This stuff is almost expected and won’t surprise any voters at all. It’s right in line with who they voted for. Bill Clinton’s impeachment problem might have been a bit of a surprise to voters but I doubt many voters changed their minds about Clinton. So all it does is highlight just one more politician in a long string of politicians that screw around and try to keep it secret. Apparently JFK did so with media collusion. Clinton less so. ...

For Trump, any impeachment calls coming out of this will just be seen as a which hunt as it was with Clinton.

It does, however, connects through Michael Cohen who is known to have made contact with various Russians along with others. If Stormy Daniels figures into it, it might be that she is simply the break that exposed the Trump/Cohen wrongdoing. Nobody is saying that Marilyn Monroe or Monica Lewinsky were also coluding with Russians or were involved in money laundering or had been paid off by Kennedy or Clinton to keep them quiet.

Trump will probably regret using the same lawyer for both business and personal matters.

Jimmie Åkesson, leader of the populist Sweden Democrats (SD) party, was interrupted twice as he spoke to a hostile crowd at the Järvaveckan cross-party political forum on Saturday.

Åkesson, who claimed in his speech to support immigration, also said that immigrants must understand how Swedish society works, reports news agency TT.

...
“I think one theme is democracy and an important part of democracy is dialogue. To be able to talk to each other without using ugly words and yelling and instead showing respect for each other’s opinions,” Åkesson said after resuming his speech.

He was interrupted a second time a few minutes later.

The Sweden Democrats leader was also met with applause when he said that another important part of democracy was that “you do not have to listen”.
...

A recent opinion poll from Sweden's largest statistics agency suggests that the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats have taken the lead over the opposition Moderate Party as Sweden's second-largest political party.

The party, which has roots in the neo-Nazi movements of the 1990s, has an official zero-tolerance approach to racism.

But several elected Sweden Democrat politicians have been forced to vacate their seats over anti-Semitic or racist statements over the years....

“There is very little evidence that the migrants are to blame for a rise in violent crime. But Sweden - so often the place that countries have looked to follow on social policy - has not been so successful at integrating migrants over the past 20 years.”

Immigrants simply need to be welcomed and economically integrated into society and not left to a dog eat dog system where they are at a natural disadvantage due to discrimination, less that optimum skills, etc.

While I don’t agree with racist discriminatory “points” driven systems and would prefer more of a random selection process, our points system does create better odds of integration due to prioritizing desired skills. No matter what though, there needs to be coordinated long term support system put in place to ensure all immigrants can become “productive members” of society.

Trudeau calls for independent investigation into Israel’s ‘excessive force’ against civilians
ROBERT FIFE, OTTAWA
PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2018
Dr. Tarek Loubani is pictured in Gaza on May 14, 2018. Still in his hospital greens, which identified him as a doctor to IDF snipers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has deplored the shooting of a Canadian-Palestinian doctor by an Israeli sniper and called for an independent investigation into Israel’s use of live ammunition against civilians.

Mr. Trudeau issued a statement on Wednesday decrying as “inexcusable” the use of “excessive force.”

“We are appalled that Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen, is among the wounded – along with so many unarmed people, including civilians, members of the media, first responders, and children,” Mr. Trudeau said in the strongest criticism his government has ever levelled against Israel. “Canada calls for an immediate independent investigation to thoroughly examine the facts on the ground – including any incitement, violence, and the excessive use of force.”

Dr. Loubani was shot in both legs by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border Monday as clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli Defence Forces left at least 60 dead. More than 2,700 Palestinians suffered injuries, including 1,359 from live ammunition.

Israel had deployed two brigades and at least 100 snipers along the Gaza frontier as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have also called for an independent inquiry, expressing concern about the volume of live fire used by Israeli forces. The United States blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement on Tuesday that would have called for an independent probe. The United States blames the deaths on Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza and which encouraged the protests.

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.

Immigrants simply need to be welcomed and economically integrated into society and not left to a dog eat dog system where they are at a natural disadvantage due to discrimination, less that optimum skills, etc.

While I don’t agree with racist discriminatory “points” driven systems and would prefer more of a random selection process, our points system does create better odds of integration due to prioritizing desired skills. No matter what though, there needs to be coordinated long term support system put in place to ensure all immigrants can become “productive members” of society.

What was the American motto to immigrants

Trump's versionGive me your white, your English speaking, your well educated yearning to breathe smog (since I am getting rid of the EPA), The wealthy elites of my golf club resorts by the sandy shore. Send the young beautiful women, the porn stars, the Russian oligarchs to me, as I worship my reflection at the Trump Hotel's golden door!

Advocating a better Edmonton through effective, efficient and economical transit.

Ri criticized the South for participating in the drills, as well as for allowing “human scum” to speak at its National Assembly, the North’s KCNA news agency said in a statement.

“Unless the serious situation which led to the suspension of the north-south high-level talks is settled, it will never be easy to sit face to face again with the present regime of south Korea,” the statement said.

And it just happens that the one company willing to help out Jared is linked with Qatar. Total coincidence I'm sure.

Kushners Near Deal With Qatar-Linked Company for Troubled Tower

The company controlled by the family of the White House adviser Jared Kushner is close to receiving a bailout of its financially troubled flagship building by a company with ties to the government of Qatar, according to executives briefed on the deal.

Charles Kushner, head of the Kushner Companies, is in advanced talks with Brookfield Properties over a partnership to take control of the 41-story aluminum-clad tower 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown, according to two real estate executives who have been briefed on the pending deal but are not authorized to discuss it. Brookfield is a publicly traded company, headquartered in Canada, one of whose major investors is the Qatar Investment Authority.

Jared Kushner about to get bailed out of $1.8B disaster by besieged Qatar

Jared’s father Charles Kushner—freshly returned from prison after pleading guilty to 18 counts of making illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering—claimed that he met with Qatar as a courtesy back in April 2017. The Kushner company stated they had already determined that it would not be “appropriate” for Kushner to take a loan backed by the Qatar government.

Instead, Kushner and Trump went almost immediately off to Saudi Arabia, where Kushner was joined by Donald Trump in supporting a near-coup that overturned the kingdom’s line of succession. The pair then gave the Saudis their long desired go-ahead to blockade their smaller neighbor—an action that Trump has since supported in numerous tweets and statements.

But since then, Kushner got a $184M loan backed by Qatar, and now Kushner is suddenly on the brink of getting a major investment from the tiny US ally, with a minor layer of paint over its origins. If that sounds to you like Kushner was turned down by Qatar, looked on Saudi ambitions as a way to punish the people who turned him down, then waited with one hand on his empty wallet for Qatar to ask for forgiveness, you’re not crazy.

John Bolton may be trying to sabotage Trump's North Korea summit—but he also might just be an *****

It's impossible to overstate just how incompetent new Trump national security adviser and ex-Bush United Nations representative John Bolton is. The man is a military-minded Larry Kudlow.

Bolton's repeated public declarations that he anticipates North Korean disarmament to follow the "Libya model"—an abandonment of the nation's nuclear program in exchange for a promise of United States non-involvement that the United States would freely break soon afterward, with the leader who negotiated that agreement ending up quite thoroughly dead—has of course not been taken kindly to by the North Korean figures Team Trump would be negotiating with. To North Korean leaders, Libya is precisely the fate they wish to avoid—the entire reason for having a nuclear program to begin with. Repeatedly invoking a denuclearization deal that directly or indirectly led to the overthrow and execution of another nation's dictator would seem to be a sublimely stupid negotiation tactic—unless, perhaps, it is not incompetence but intended.

“It pushes all the wrong buttons,” said Joe Cirincione, president of Ploughshares Fund, which seeks to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons. “The diplomacy with North Korea is going very well and Bolton threw a spanner in the works. ”

It may have been intentional. Bolton has long taken a hard line with North Korea, and had called for regime change in the country, rationalized preemptive military action and opposed direct talks with Kim’s government before joining the White House last month.

Gee, where have we seen the leader of a nation declare that some people are less than human? Let me think....

hmmmm... seeing as how you asked:

even without going back to nazi descriptives or even further back to those used in the crusades or the inquisitions, it wasn’t that long ago that Raed Salah published the following poem in an Islamic Movement periodical:

“You Jews are criminal bombers of mosques,
Slaughterers of pregnant women and babies.
Robbers and germs in all times,The Creator sentenced you to be loser monkeys,
Victory belongs to Muslims, from the Nile to the Euphrates."

Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the northern branch of the Islamic movement, referred to Jews as "fleas".

The Saudi schoolbook curriculum for the 8th grade included (still includes?) the following statements:

“They are the people of the Sabbath, whose young people God turned into apes, and whose old people God turned into swine to punish them.”

“The apes are Jews, the keepers of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christian infidels of the communion of Jesus.” and

“Some of the people of the Sabbath were punished by being turned into apes and swine.”

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, imam and preacher at the Al-Haraam mosque – the most important mosque in Mecca – beseeched Allah to annihilate the Jews. He also urged the Arabs to give up peace initiatives with them because they are "the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and pigs."

i'm sure anyone who wanted could expand this list and the thread to great length even without posting a reposting large photographs.

dthis brief, abbreviated list isn’t intended in any way to excuse the donald and his ill-considered uncouth mutterings but he certainly isn’t the first to declare those who are different as being less than human.

Ri criticized the South for participating in the drills, as well as for allowing “human scum” to speak at its National Assembly, the North’s KCNA news agency said in a statement.

“Unless the serious situation which led to the suspension of the north-south high-level talks is settled, it will never be easy to sit face to face again with the present regime of south Korea,” the statement said.

... and things were going so nicely for the last, but really this can't be much of a surprise.

The land of little Kim is a place where people can suddenly and unexpectedly go from being honorable to pond scum depending on the mood of the dear leader and perhaps how well some one sucks up to him. Of course, I am sure people there are used to it - one day the dear leader says white is white, the next day he says black is white and they are all just supposed to nod their heads and say he is a great genius and and was right all along and ignore any inconsistencies and lies. Sort of like Trump world I guess.

No, it doesn't excuse Trump and the others but I was specifically thinking of the more well known example.

And it's funny that you'd bring up a Saudi textbook since they are such a close ally of the USA and as well as being a behind the scenes sometimes ally of Israel. Enemy of my enemy in regards to Iran and all that. Amazing what people are willing to overlook.

Of course, it's not limited to just one side.

Do Not Dehumanize Muslims and Liken Them to Dangerous Animals

In an international conference on November 19 in Israel that was attended by France’s ambassador to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likened Muslims to “dangerous animals” that must be defeated, adding, “The beasts increasingly have a name — it is radical Islam.” On November 18 Netanyahoo’s minister of economy Naftali Bennet said, “[Israel] should have killed more [Arabs] because anyone who lifts a hand against Israel must die.”

Jewish Home MK Eli Ben Dahan to oversee the authorization of travel and entry permits for Palestinians in West Bank, Gaza

As part of the coalition agreement reached between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish Home party on Thursday, MK Eli Ben Dahan, a rabbi who’s made controversial statements about Palestinians and non-Jews, will serve as Israel’s next deputy defense minister.

Under the new job description, Ben Dahan, who served as the deputy religious affairs minister in the previous government, will also be responsible for the IDF’s Civil Administration running government affairs in the West Bank.

Ben Dahan has made controversial remarks about Palestinians. While discussing the resumption of peace talks in a radio interview in 2013, Ben Dahan said that “To me, they are like animals, they aren’t human.”

The report also refers to two previous suspicious-activity reports, or sars, that the bank had filed, which documented even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen’s account. Those two reports detail more than three million dollars in additional transactions—triple the amount in the report released last week. Which individuals or corporations were involved remains a mystery. But, according to the official who leaked the report, these sars were absent from the database maintained by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or fincen. The official, who has spent a career in law enforcement, told me, “I have never seen something pulled off the system. . . . That system is a safeguard for the bank. It’s a stockpile of information. When something’s not there that should be, I immediately became concerned.” The official added, “That’s why I came forward.”

Seven former government officials and other experts familiar with the Treasury Department’s fincen database expressed varying levels of concern about the missing reports. Some speculated that fincen may have restricted access to the reports due to the sensitivity of their content, which they said would be nearly unprecedented. One called the possibility “explosive.” A record-retention policy on fincen’s Web site notes that false documents or those “deemed highly sensitive” and “requiring strict limitations on access” may be transferred out of its master file. Nevertheless, a former prosecutor who spent years working with the fincen database said that she knew of no mechanism for restricting access to sars. She speculated that fincen may have taken the extraordinary step of restricting access “because of the highly sensitive nature of a potential investigation. It may be that someone reached out to fincen to ask to limit disclosure of certain sars related to an investigation, whether it was the special counsel or the Southern District of New York.” (The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. The Southern District is investigating Cohen, and the F.B.I. raided his office and hotel room last month.)

Trudeau calls for independent investigation into Israel’s ‘excessive force’ against civilians
ROBERT FIFE, OTTAWA
PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2018
Dr. Tarek Loubani is pictured in Gaza on May 14, 2018. Still in his hospital greens, which identified him as a doctor to IDF snipers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has deplored the shooting of a Canadian-Palestinian doctor by an Israeli sniper and called for an independent investigation into Israel’s use of live ammunition against civilians.

Mr. Trudeau issued a statement on Wednesday decrying as “inexcusable” the use of “excessive force.”

“We are appalled that Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen, is among the wounded – along with so many unarmed people, including civilians, members of the media, first responders, and children,” Mr. Trudeau said in the strongest criticism his government has ever levelled against Israel. “Canada calls for an immediate independent investigation to thoroughly examine the facts on the ground – including any incitement, violence, and the excessive use of force.”

Dr. Loubani was shot in both legs by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border Monday as clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli Defence Forces left at least 60 dead. More than 2,700 Palestinians suffered injuries, including 1,359 from live ammunition.

Israel had deployed two brigades and at least 100 snipers along the Gaza frontier as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have also called for an independent inquiry, expressing concern about the volume of live fire used by Israeli forces. The United States blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement on Tuesday that would have called for an independent probe. The United States blames the deaths on Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza and which encouraged the protests.

Doesn't this look a little staged? His shoes on, no swelling, no blood, no discoloration - just some gauze and intravenous that somehow might be available to a doctor.

Yes because he was just getting ready to jog after having been shot in both legs and the remaining doctors that extracted the Israeli sniper bullets thought that was a fine idea. And the miraculous cures and recoveries allow no swelling or bruising from bullets that appear to have directly penetrated the shin bones.

Trudeau calls for independent investigation into Israel’s ‘excessive force’ against civilians
ROBERT FIFE, OTTAWA
PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2018
Dr. Tarek Loubani is pictured in Gaza on May 14, 2018. Still in his hospital greens, which identified him as a doctor to IDF snipers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has deplored the shooting of a Canadian-Palestinian doctor by an Israeli sniper and called for an independent investigation into Israel’s use of live ammunition against civilians.

Mr. Trudeau issued a statement on Wednesday decrying as “inexcusable” the use of “excessive force.”

“We are appalled that Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen, is among the wounded – along with so many unarmed people, including civilians, members of the media, first responders, and children,” Mr. Trudeau said in the strongest criticism his government has ever levelled against Israel. “Canada calls for an immediate independent investigation to thoroughly examine the facts on the ground – including any incitement, violence, and the excessive use of force.”

Dr. Loubani was shot in both legs by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border Monday as clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli Defence Forces left at least 60 dead. More than 2,700 Palestinians suffered injuries, including 1,359 from live ammunition.

Israel had deployed two brigades and at least 100 snipers along the Gaza frontier as tens of thousands of Palestinians protested against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

British Prime Minister Theresa May and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have also called for an independent inquiry, expressing concern about the volume of live fire used by Israeli forces. The United States blocked the adoption of a UN Security Council statement on Tuesday that would have called for an independent probe. The United States blames the deaths on Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza and which encouraged the protests.

Doesn't this look a little staged? His shoes on, no swelling, no blood, no discoloration - just some gauze and intravenous that somehow might be available to a doctor.

The report also refers to two previous suspicious-activity reports, or sars, that the bank had filed, which documented even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen’s account. Those two reports detail more than three million dollars in additional transactions—triple the amount in the report released last week. Which individuals or corporations were involved remains a mystery. But, according to the official who leaked the report, these sars were absent from the database maintained by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or fincen. The official, who has spent a career in law enforcement, told me, “I have never seen something pulled off the system. . . . That system is a safeguard for the bank. It’s a stockpile of information. When something’s not there that should be, I immediately became concerned.” The official added, “That’s why I came forward.”

Seven former government officials and other experts familiar with the Treasury Department’s fincen database expressed varying levels of concern about the missing reports. Some speculated that fincen may have restricted access to the reports due to the sensitivity of their content, which they said would be nearly unprecedented. One called the possibility “explosive.” A record-retention policy on fincen’s Web site notes that false documents or those “deemed highly sensitive” and “requiring strict limitations on access” may be transferred out of its master file. Nevertheless, a former prosecutor who spent years working with the fincen database said that she knew of no mechanism for restricting access to sars. She speculated that fincen may have taken the extraordinary step of restricting access “because of the highly sensitive nature of a potential investigation. It may be that someone reached out to fincen to ask to limit disclosure of certain sars related to an investigation, whether it was the special counsel or the Southern District of New York.” (The special counsel, Robert Mueller, is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. The Southern District is investigating Cohen, and the F.B.I. raided his office and hotel room last month.)

Fascinating!

Same article:

“Things that stand out as abnormal, like documents being removed from a system, are of grave concern to me.” Of the potential for legal consequences, the official said, “To say that I am terrified right now would be an understatement.” But, referring to the released report, as well as the potential contents of the missing reports, the official also added, “This is a terrifying time to be an American, to be in this situation, and to watch all of this unfold.”

So are you saying that the only probable outcome will be the US bombing NK?

More of what Trump said.

Trump's warning to Kim Jong-un: make a deal or suffer same fate as Gaddafi

Donald Trump has threatened Kim Jong-un with the same fate as Muammar Gaddafi if the North Korean leader “doesn’t make a deal” on his nuclear weapons programme.

The US president issued the threat at t he White House when he was asked about the recent suggestion by his national security adviser, John Bolton, that the “Libyan model” be a template for dealing with North Korea at a summit between Trump and Kim planned for 12 June in Singapore.

The model Bolton was referring to was Gaddafi’s agreement in December 2003 to surrender his embryonic nuclear weapons programme, which included allowing his uranium centrifuges to be shipped out to the US.

But Trump appeared to be unaware of that agreement, and interpreted the “Libyan model” to mean the 2011 Nato intervention in Libya in support of an insurrection, which ultimately led to Gaddafi’s murder at the hands of rebels in Tripoli.

“The model, if you look at that model with Gaddafi, that was a total decimation. We went in there to beat him. Now that model would take place if we don’t make a deal, most likely. But if we make a deal, I think Kim Jong-un is going to be very, very happy,” Trump said, suggesting that the regime’s survival could be assured if Kim agreed to disarm.

“This with Kim Jong-un would be something where he would be there. He would be running his country. His country would be very rich,” the president said.

“We’re willing to do a lot, and he’s willing … to do a lot also, and I think we’ll actually have a good relationship, assuming we have the meeting and assuming something comes of it. And he’ll get protections that will be very strong.”

Asked whether his comments meant that he disagreed with his national security adviser, the third of his administration, the president said: “I think when John Bolton made that statement, he was talking about if we are going to be having a problem, because we cannot let that country have nukes. We just can’t do it.”

Joel Wit, a former US negotiator who is now a senior fellow at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, said: “This is probably the wrong time to be making threats, three weeks before the summit.”

The inflammatory comments come at a time when the June meeting is in doubt. The regime in Pyongyang reacted strongly against statements by Bolton over the weekend, who insisted North Korea would have to dismantle its nuclear arsenal completely and immediately. A senior official said on Wednesday that Kim would not take part in a summit with such “one-sided” goals.

Donald Trump offers ‘protections’ to North Korea if they will just hand over their nukes

A quick reminder of how the Libyan Model ended, courtesy of Wikipedia…

A video appears to picture Gaddafi being poked or stabbed in the anus "with some kind of stick or knife" or possibly a bayonet ... Pulled onto the front of a pick-up truck, he fell off as it drove away. ... Gaddafi's corpse was placed in the freezer of a local market alongside the corpses of Yunis Jabr and [his son] Mutassim; the bodies were publicly displayed for four days, with Libyans from all over the country coming to view them

First, I'd get Bolton out of the picture.
Second, stop sucking up to Kim and giving the attention and legitimacy that he craves.
Third, stop showing your hand before you even begin negotiations.

Is an American attack likely? I don't think so because you'd involve China and likely Russia.
Is an American attack possible? Certainly, since Trump is convinced that he knows more than the generals and since he's calling the shots, it would all work out swimmingly.

The sanctions are only truly effective as long as China is on board with them. As soon as they lift any sanctions, then Kim has no reason to chat with Donald other than to get pictures of Trump treating as an equal. To him, that would be a win.

The Kims haven't been pursuing nuclear weapons for decades just to give them up for some vague promises that Trump in all likelihood wound't keep anyway.

First, I'd get Bolton out of the picture.
Second, stop sucking up to Kim and giving the attention and legitimacy that he craves.
Third, stop showing your hand before you even begin negotiations.

Is an American attack likely? I don't think so because you'd involve China and likely Russia.
Is an American attack possible? Certainly, since Trump is convinced that he knows more than the generals and since he's calling the shots, it would all work out swimmingly.

The sanctions are only truly effective as long as China is on board with them. As soon as they lift any sanctions, then Kim has no reason to chat with Donald other than to get pictures of Trump treating as an equal. To him, that would be a win.

The Kims haven't been pursuing nuclear weapons for decades just to give them up for some vague promises that Trump in all likelihood wound't keep anyway.

So under your plan, do they get to keep their nukes or do they have to denuclearize?

How do you suggest dealing with them? They're not going to trust any agreement the Americans made since Trump can just walk away at any time as he did with Iran.

Only one country has given up their nuclear weapons, that being South Africa. Iran has made an agreement that every signatory except the Trump administration agrees has been working. That basically take a negotiated settlement off the table.

Like Iran, North Korea isn't suicidal. They know that any use of their nukes would be met with an attack of the same. China would turn on them. They'd be signing their death warrant.

Of all the various options, letting them keep what they've got is the best of a bad selection of options.

Amazing how Trump frothed at the mouth for the entire campaign about his views that the Clinton Foundation was a 'pay-to-play' scheme.

Meanwhile Trump, his family and his lawyer are all on the overt 'pay-to-play' scheme and extorting money from corporations and countries.

THE KUSHNERS ARE FINALLY GETTING THAT SWEET, SWEET QATARI CASH
Qatar, under siege, opens its pocketbook to help save 666 Fifth

Last month, in an effort to push back on the growing consensus that his eldest son may be an *****, Charlie Kushner sat down with CNN to claim that the decision to buy 666 Fifth Avenue, a Midtown tower that has become an albatross around Kushner Cos.’s neck, was not Jared’s but his. “I pushed Jared to do the deal,” Charlie insisted, despite the fact that Jared had been the de facto C.E.O. at the time the deal was being negotiated. His father, in fact, was busy making wallets at a prison camp in Alabama, where he was serving time for, among other things, setting up his brother-in-law with a prostitute, taping the encounter, and sending it to his sister in retaliation for turning state’s evidence. But we digress. Regardless of whose idea it was to buy 666 Fifth—what was then the most expensive building in New York City history, on the eve of the financial crisis—, the deal was a disaster. The building’s biggest tenants fled during the recession. The Kushners had to refinance, selling a 49.5 percent stake in the building to Vornado Realty Trust in exchange for a portion of the debt. Still, the mortgage ballooned. The entire $1.2 billion balance is due in 2019, and the property is bleeding money.

The result has been a slow-motion, failed fire sale, with the Kushners trying to find someone, anyone, to bail them out. In 2017, it looked like Anbang Insurance Group, a Chinese holding company with ties to the Chinese government, might bite, but they backed out when the heat on Jared—suddenly a West Wing adviser—got too hot. Charlie even sat down with Qatar’s finance minister, Ali Sharif Al Emadi, in 2017, but the talks allegedly went nowhere.

Why did those talks go nowhere? As Charlie Kushner told CNN, Kushner Cos. takes pains to avoid even the perception of a conflict of interest. Indeed, the firm’s lawyer “reminds dealmakers weekly of the company’s self-imposed ban on financing from foreign governments.” Kushner the Elder even went so far to admit it was “stupid” of him to meet with Al Emadi in 2017, saying he accepted the invite purely “out of respect” for the Qataris to tell them there was no way “we could do business.”

Getting a bail out from a company with “extensive ties” to Qatar, though? Apparently that’s a-O.K.!

According to Bolton, Trump doesn't need to prepare because he can instinctively size up Kim and tell if he's being honest.

Part of the problem is that Trump is beginning to actually believe what he says. He's losing sight of the fact that a lot of what he says is just ******** designed to make himself look "good" to his followers.

Yeah, how's that working out for you?

Here is how badly North Korea’s Kim Jong-un suckered a gullible Donald Trump

One interpretation Panda offered was that the North Koreans “effectively thought the U.S. wasn’t being serious, was running sort of an arrogant victory lap before the talks had taken place, and was still setting up complete denuclearization as the benchmark. So they put out a statement saying that we can’t really meet on the basis of that because we’re not going to give up our nuclear weapons.

“None of this is surprising to people who have been watching the Korean peninsula for a long time,” Panda concluded. “North Korea has taken a similar approach to talks with the United States before, but the Trump administration, either willfully or by accident, simply hasn’t paying attention to the details.”

The story so far: In the past few years ZTE, a Chinese electronics company that, among other things, makes cheap smartphones, has gotten into repeated trouble with the U.S. government. Many of its products contain U.S. technology — technology that, by law, must not be exported to embargoed nations, including North Korea and Iran. But ZTE was circumventing the ban.

Initially, the company was fined $1.2 billion. Then, when it became clear that the company had rewarded rather than punished the executives involved, the Commerce Department forbade U.S. technology companies from selling components to ZTE for the next seven years.
And two weeks ago the Pentagon banned sales of ZTE phones on military bases, following warnings from intelligence agencies that the Chinese government may be using the company’s products to conduct espionage.
All of which made it very strange indeed to see Trump suddenly declare that he was working with President Xi of China to help save ZTE — “Too many jobs in China lost” — and that he was ordering the Commerce Department to make it happen.

It’s possible that Trump was just trying to offer an olive branch amid what looks like a possible trade war. But why choose such a flagrant example of Chinese misbehavior? Which was why many eyes turned to Indonesia, where a Chinese state-owned company just announced a big investment in a project in which the Trump Organization has a substantial stake.

That investment, by the way, is part of the Belt and Road project, a multinational infrastructure initiative China is using to reinforce its economic centrality — and geopolitical influence — across Eurasia. Meanwhile, whatever happened to that Trump infrastructure plan?

Back to ZTE: Was there a quid pro quo? We may never know. But this wasn’t the first time the Trump administration made a peculiar foreign policy move that seems associated with Trump family business interests. Last year the administration, bizarrely, backed a Saudi blockade of Qatar, a Middle Eastern nation that also happens to be the site of a major U.S. military base. Why? Well, the move came shortly after the Qataris refused to invest $500 million in 666 Fifth Avenue, a troubled property owned by the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Image
Qatar may be about to make a deal on 666 Fifth Avenue, a troubled property owned by the family of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
CreditKarsten Moran for The New York Times
And now it looks as if Qatar may be about to make a deal on 666 Fifth Avenue after all. I wonder why?

Step back from the details and consider the general picture. High officials have the power to reward or punish both businesses and other governments, so that undue influence is always a problem, even if it takes the form of campaign contributions or indirect financial rewards via the revolving door.

Read much more

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Tensions between the U.S. and Iran will likely only grow in the months ahead as hard-liners there gain power by pushing the narrative that the West cannot be trusted and the Trump administration continues to try and look tough.

Experts who watched Pompeo’s speech called his demands unrealistic and some predicted that when Iran inevitably fails to meet them, the U.S. will use it as justification for military intervention.

“Pompeo has not outlined a strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran,” tweeted Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

Arms Control, Trump-Style
The president’s last foray into international negotiations doesn’t bode well for his Kim meeting.

No one should have been surprised by Kim’s refusal to give away his sole strategic asset. What put Trump into a tizzy was the Wednesday statement by North Korea’s top negotiator, stating that Pyongyang was not interested in the “Libya model” of disarmament (which Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton had publicly proposed) and that the summit, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, wasn’t worth holding unless Washington agreed that the goal should be “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” (not just of North Korea), achieved by “phased, synchronous measures” (not all at once or with North Korea making its move first, as Trump and his advisers have demanded). This has been Kim’s position all along, and, by the standards of arms-control accords struck over the decades by other countries, including the United States, it’s quite reasonable.

Nor should Kim’s firm grasp of the issues have come as a shock. Though he’s young and a barbaric dictator, he’s no *****; he’s been out in the world, having been educated at a Swiss boarding school; he has been the driving force behind his country’s success in assembling a nuclear arsenal. And when it comes to nuclear weapons, studiousness is a family tradition. When his father, Kim Jong-il, met with President Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, in 2000, to hammer out a possible treaty to bar North Korea from building ballistic missiles, Albright’s staff members—who attended the meeting—were stunned that Kim had mastered every detail and could discuss them without consulting his own aides. (Clinton’s term ended before a deal could be reached; George W. Bush had no interest in resuming where Albright left off.)

In short, Trump is sleepwalking into a potentially historic summit with a determined leader who knows what he has and, more importantly, what he wants—while, until very recently, Trump has shown no awareness that this knowledge is fundamental to diplomacy, to leadership, to making a smart deal.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran will likely only grow in the months ahead as hard-liners there gain power by pushing the narrative that the West cannot be trusted and the Trump administration continues to try and look tough.

Experts who watched Pompeo’s speech called his demands unrealistic and some predicted that when Iran inevitably fails to meet them, the U.S. will use it as justification for military intervention.

“Pompeo has not outlined a strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran,” tweeted Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

If all else fails with U.S.-North Korean diplomacy, at least we’ll have this weird coin
Kim Jong-Un indicated that a meeting with Trump in June might not happen, and no one has more to lose than Trump right now.

It feels like only a short time ago that President Donald Trump was insulting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, engaging in name calling and threats everywhere from Twitter to the floor of the United Nations.

And yet, on Monday, CNN’s Jim Acosta tweeted an image of a commemorative coin that marks the potential upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit.

There are three problems with that, though:

The summit has not yet happened.

The summit might not happen, as Kim has serious reservations about U.S. demands.

Kim’s title is not “Supreme Leader,” as indicated on the coin. While probably flattering, that is the title of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As The Week points out, Kim’s actual title, “Dear Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army” is too long. Still, “Respected Comrade” or “Chairman” seems more accurate.

OK. The USA crushes Iran like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then what? ISIS moves into the vacuum?

It would be pretty idiotic to wage war against Iran, no doubt. But ISIS would not "move in to the vacuum" in Iran. Iran is predominantly Shia, and Persian. ISIS is Sunni and Arab. That being said, I have no doubt that the Republican Guard of Iran would have a insurgency plan cooked up that would make Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or Libya look like a cake walk by comparison.

Wonder why the military and intelligence agencies were caught off guard by Trump's declaration that the Qatari government was supporting terrorism? As always with Trump, it comes down to money.

The Princes, The President And The Fortune Seekers

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a year spent carefully cultivating two princes from the Arabian Peninsula, Elliott Broidy, a top fundraiser for President Donald Trump, thought he was finally close to nailing more than $1 billion in business.

He had ingratiated himself with crown princes from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who were seeking to alter U.S. foreign policy and punish Qatar, an archrival in the Gulf that he dubbed “the snake.”

To do that, the California businessman had helped spearhead a secret campaign to influence the White House and Congress, flooding Washington with political donations.

Broidy and his business partner, Lebanese-American George Nader, pitched themselves to the crown princes as a backchannel to the White House, passing the princes’ praise — and messaging — straight to the president’s ears.

Now, in December 2017, Broidy was ready to be rewarded for all his hard work.

It was time to cash in.

In return for pushing anti-Qatar policies at the highest levels of America’s government, Broidy and Nader expected huge consulting contracts from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, according to an Associated Press investigation based on interviews with more than two dozen people and hundreds of pages of leaked emails between the two men. The emails reviewed by the AP included work summaries and contracting documents and proposals.

The AP has previously reported that Broidy and Nader sought to get an anti-Qatar bill through Congress while obscuring the source of the money behind their influence campaign. A new cache of emails obtained by the AP reveals an ambitious, secretive lobbying effort to isolate Qatar and undermine the Pentagon’s longstanding relationship with the Gulf country.

May 10th: Trump announces summit will take place on June 12th in Singapore.

After all this, it was just five days later when the North Koreans canceled a planning meeting and began signaling that “denuclearization” was not up for debate. It’s all pretty clear (and this was widely predicted by area experts). Kim waited and waited and waited, fluffed and fluffed and fluffed until Trump had locked himself into a time and a place, before threatening to cancel and saying publicly North Korea would not give up its nuclear weapons. This way Trump is either faced with attending the summit, in which the two men will meet as equals and nuclearization will not be up for discussion, or canceling a meeting upon which Trump has banked so much both domestically and internationally.

Two days ago a “U.S. official” was left to lament to The Washington Post: “It doesn’t look like they want to denuclearize at all.

OK. The USA crushes Iran like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then what? ISIS moves into the vacuum?

It would be pretty idiotic to wage war against Iran, no doubt. But ISIS would not "move in to the vacuum" in Iran. Iran is predominantly Shia, and Persian. ISIS is Sunni and Arab. That being said, I have no doubt that the Republican Guard of Iran would have a insurgency plan cooked up that would make Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan or Libya look like a cake walk by comparison.

If Trump thinks they can take on Iran halfway around the world and win a clear victory and have it all run by Haliburton with no casualties on the American side, Trump will find that wars are a little more complex than he thinks.

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Watch for a repeat of Iraq except they won't allow the Shia to hold government jobs, including the military. Meanwhile, the Sunni occupiers backed up by the US of A, quickly start oppressing the Shia. Torture makes a comeback. And Trump will be shocked, shocked I say, when there's a rebellion against the invasion.

It took 18 months for Kushner to finally pass his security clearance after may errors, omissions and false claims.

Would you trust a new driver who took 18 months and numerous tests to pass their drivers test? I wouldn't. Let alone as a supposedly smart person in high office that is in a position of trust. I don't trust Kushner one bit.

BTW, getting a security clearance does no vindicate Kushner of the multiple investigations of his activities are stopping. In fact he is still subject to investigation and may be charged for possible Federal and State crimes.

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WASHINGTON—U.S. President Donald Trump made 25 false claims last week. Nine of them came during the public portion of his meetings with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Nine of them came on Twitter.

Trump also made a claim that highlights how he sometimes bends the facts for his own purposes even when he is not saying something that is definitively false.

During a speech to the families of police officers who died on the job, Trump told the story of Rogelio Martinez, a Border Patrol agent who died in 2017.

Trump noted that Martinez “bravely confronted the cartels, the smugglers, the human traffickers, the gangs that threaten our communities.” And then, right after that, he said, “One night, last November, Agent Martinez died in the line of duty. It was horrific. It was violent.”

Trump was clearly suggesting that Martinez was murdered by a violent criminal. But that does not appear to be the case. The FBI announced in February that it had found no evidence Martinez was attacked. In an internal memo that month, then-acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan told his staff that he believed Martinez “fell into a nine-foot-deep culvert,” the Washington Post reported.

We cannot call Trump’s claim false: though it appears likely false, there is no conclusive proof either way. Still, it’s worth noting. Trump is now up to 1,591 false claims for the first 486 days of his presidency, an average of 3.3 per day.

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If all else fails with U.S.-North Korean diplomacy, at least we’ll have this weird coin
Kim Jong-Un indicated that a meeting with Trump in June might not happen, and no one has more to lose than Trump right now.

It feels like only a short time ago that President Donald Trump was insulting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, engaging in name calling and threats everywhere from Twitter to the floor of the United Nations.

And yet, on Monday, CNN’s Jim Acosta tweeted an image of a commemorative coin that marks the potential upcoming U.S.-North Korea summit.

There are three problems with that, though:

The summit has not yet happened.

The summit might not happen, as Kim has serious reservations about U.S. demands.

Kim’s title is not “Supreme Leader,” as indicated on the coin. While probably flattering, that is the title of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As The Week points out, Kim’s actual title, “Dear Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, Chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army” is too long. Still, “Respected Comrade” or “Chairman” seems more accurate.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em,Know when to walk away and know when to run.You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

He shouldn't have been at the table in the first place. It was a massive boost in recognition and legitimization for him to, on a whim, agree to meet with Kim without preconditions or significant preliminary discussions. Hell, Trump called Kim "honorable" at one point because he actually thought he had a chance at winning a Nobel Peace Prize if he kissed Kim's posterior enough. It's a massive embarrassment for Trump and the US the way this has transpired. Everyone who knew anything about NK knew that this or something similar would happen.

International diplomacy is complicated and should be left to the experts, especially when it involves nuclear weapons. US foreign policy is a laughing stock right now, given what's happened with NK and Iran. The US is isolating itself from it's own allies, which reduces it's clout and influence.

When are the Republicans going to realize that their Emperor is wearing no clothes and is a complete buffoon?

Or will the Republicans go down without a whimper on the HMS Trump thinking it is unsinkable when the upper decks are awash and listing 40 degrees to port in the seas of lies, money and criminal activities that are the mark of a traitor to his Office and Country?

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Meanwhile, the governments of South Korea and Japan said "Wait, what????" This sounds like his promise that Mexico would pay for his wall.

Trump threatens war against North Korea — and says South Korea and Japan will pay for it

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to go to war with North Korea if it kept behaving badly — and he said that our allies in Japan and South Korea would pay for it.

During his formal announcement on withdrawing from a planned summit with North Korea, Trump said that both South Korea and Japan “are willing to shoulder much of the cost of any financial burden, any of the costs associated by the United States in operations” if the United States is “forced” to attack North Korea.

Writing on Twitter, Jannuzi says that the problem started when the president misread the reasons that Kim was willing to engage in negotiations in the first place. While granting that Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign did help, he said that the election of South Korean President Moon Jae-in — and his subsequent efforts to start peace talks — was arguably an even more important factor.

“Not understanding WHY diplomacy was an option, no surprise Trump badly mishandled opportunity he was gifted,” he writes. “He continued to threaten the DPRK — Libya Model references — even during immediate run-up to the summit.”

Jannuzi then takes aim at Trump’s bizarre letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un — and he noted that the letter is difficult to comprehend even for native English speakers, let alone for the governments in North and South Korea.

“Trump’s early morning letter is a classic example of his incompetence — barely coherent, full of internal contradictions, at once conciliatory and deeply provocative, threatening, in essence, a nuke strike on DPRK,” he writes. “The letter should NEVER have been sent.”

And yet, the letter was sent. Jannuzi says that the North Koreans will interpret this as showing that Trump cannot be a reliable negotiating partner for any kind of peace treaty.

Little Kim flip flops around so much, kind of like Trump. I wouldn't trust either of them and I doubt they trust each other, so perhaps best not to meet now.

I think Kim has also concluded the better strategy is to quit being quite so overtly threatening, without actually formally agreeing to give up anything, so no need for a meeting. He was clever to be belligerent enough to cause Trump to cancel the meeting instead, but not so belligerent as to cause great concern for the rest of the world. His nuclear program has probably just gone underground or into hibernation for a while, to reappear when he decides it is again useful or needed, perhaps the next time Trump makes some rash threats against his country.

For some reason North Korea acts 'hostile' to the suggestion that the US will overthrow their government once they no longer have nukes.

Trump cancels the deal and threatens North Korea with nukes in the letter.

So much winning, Art of the deal, etc. etc.

I never did understand the Libya thing. It is probably close to the biggest US blunder in the last 25 years, up there with Saddam Hussein's missing chemical weapons.

For years Qaddafi was an international menace and then he decided it was better to play nice. His reward was getting over thrown by the US - don't think the rest of the world didn't notice, they did. Sure he treated his people badly, but so do dozens of other dictators around the world. I suppose he outlived his usefulness to the US and they overthrew him because it was not too difficult and there was oil there.

Now Libya is a total mess and Iraq too. The US has spent billions on propping things up for years and now fighting against ISIS. I suppose they are a rich country and it is their money to waste, but there is only so much foolishness and bad decisions even a great power can get away with until its power is drained or dissipates and the rest of the world stops taking them seriously.

As to what happens next, Denmark believes that Trump has harmed American credibility through his impulsive decisions to first accept the North Korea meeting, and then just as hastily back out of it.

“Coming just a few hours after North Korea demolished its nuclear test site, it guarantees that the US takes the blame for undermining diplomacy,” Denmark explains. “North Korea comes out looking like the reasonable one.”

Contrary to your first sentence. You do understand the whole Libya thing.

This is what the US does and has done since the days of Theodore Roosevelt and banana republics.

I realize the US does not mind to get messy with regime change when it thinks it is in their interest and necessary, but I thought the people at the state department were a bit smarter than this. Qaddafi was no spring chicken and had already been defanged and declawed, all they had to do was play nice for a while, wait a few years and find a successor to groom. They could have got to the same end without spending as much, destroying the country and damaging their international reputation.

"We’re the only country essentially that has judges. They want to hire thousands of judges. Other country have- the other countries have- it’s called security people. People that stand there and say, ‘you can’t come in.’ We have thousands of judges, and they need thousands of more… judges. The whole system is corrupt, it’ horrible. So yeah, you need thousands of judges based on this crazy system. Who ever heard of a system where you put people through trials? Where do these judges come from? You know judges are very special person. How do you hire thousands of people to be a judge? So, it’s ridiculous. We’re going to change the system, we have no choice for the good of our country."

How can you possibly defend this man, it's literally the definition of old man yells at cloud.

Trump is the judge, jury and executioner. He has already decided that immigrants are the worst people, rapists, murders and gang members.

Shoot them first and ask questions later. No need for judges or let refugees tell about the oppression which caused them to flee their home country. Trump will ensure that American oppression of immigrants, Muslims and people of color are oppressed more here than anywhere. The BEST oppression, YUGE! Make America White Again!

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Since the summit is now called off, it's time to pick up your summit souvenirs at clear out prices.

White House Gift Shop item of the day: Trump—Kim Summit Coins

Actually, this coin is not that coin. Not the official WHCA coin pictured above which was announced and displayed for an event that isn’t happening. This is another coin, one whose fearful visage has yet to be glimpsed by the public. And for only $19.99, you can get this coin, complete with velvet case, as a tribute to a meeting that was arranged without thought, handled without care, and ended in the spirit of rancor, thoughtlessness, and a threatened exchange of nuclear weapons. Hell, buy two.

Trump is so disappointed that his new Hanoi Trump Hotel plans and 8 new North Korea golf course projects have been shelved. He now has to look for another low wage country to make his suits and ties. Puerto Rico and Haiti turned him down and the Democratic Republic of Congo is still miffed by Trump's shitzhole country comments. Maybe he can have the made in Putin's Siberian Gulag #13...

Trump had his plans to MNKGA...

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The Guardian view on the North Korea summit: a crisis foretold
Donald Trump’s meeting was all about grabbing plaudits for his over-sized ego rather than a serious effort to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula

But calling off the summit will make it harder than ever to bridge the gulf – as will doing so hours after the North blew up tunnels at a nuclear test site, albeit that that was a symbolic not substantial measure. What has been lost? Less than Mr Trump claims. The Singapore meeting was welcome because it was better than military action. But it handed North Koreans an easy victory, granting them status without any concessions on their part. It was likely neither to clear the way for a deal, nor to close one – and it could well have gone badly awry, with even worse results. The real problem is not that the summit is off, but that it was ever scheduled with so little thought and care.

Seoul, South Korea (CNN)The leaders of North and South Korea met Saturday for a second time, South Korea's presidency announced.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in held a surprise meeting at the Demilitarized Zone, the South Korean presidency said in a statement.
Kim Jong Un, left, and Moon Jae-in embrace after Saturday's meeting at the DMZ.

The two leaders "exchanged their opinions" on among other things successfully carrying out a future US-North Korea summit, according to the statement. President Donald Trump canceled a June 12 summit with Kim this week, then told reporters Friday he's still open to a meeting.

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An Israel-based private intelligence firm made a Power Point presentation in which it appears to have bragged about the ways in which it used social media dirty tricks to help the Trump campaign, the Wall Street Journal reports. The presentation was uploaded and featured pages on making fake news sites, using “avatar seeding” to get fake news in front of groups and infiltrating opposition to seed discord, such as using a pro-Bernie Sanders Facebook group to radicalize supporters against Hillary Clinton.

Got a longer term graph? And not unemployment as that’s near useless in such debates when one thinks about it.

The Best Measure of Labor Market Health Shows Every State Needs Stronger Job Growth Policies

Economic Snapshot • By David Cooper • November 5, 2014

Though the country has come a long way from the depths of the Great Recession—with unemployment falling considerably over the past five years—a significant portion of the drop in unemployment is due to job-seekers giving up on the job search and dropping out of the labor force.

The clearest measure of true labor market health is the prime-age employment-to-population (EPOP) ratio—the percentage of the population ages 25 to 54 with a job. Looking only at the population ages 25 to 54 excludes changes in the EPOP that might be driven by the aging of the population or more young people going to school. ...

Was just responding to H.L. using the same criteria. Most Trump supporters tend to concentrate on the portion that starts in 2016 and ignore everything that came before. They do the same thing with the stock market and others.

“The prime-age (ages 25-54) employment rate rose 0.3 percentage points in February to 79.3 percent, a new high for the recovery. It rose 0.5 percentage points for men and 0.2 percentage points for women.

The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) for prime-age men now stands 1.2 percentage points above its year-ago level, while the rate for women is 0.7 percentage points above its year-ago level.

This is consistent with the view that thereZ z are still many workers who are outside the workforce, but will return in response to a strong labor market. The implication is that there is still considerable slack in the labor market and there is little reason for the Federal Reserve to rush forward with interest rate hikes.”

Donald Trump: Unemployment rate might very well be 40 percent
The Washington Times - Thursday, July 16, 2015

The Bureau of Labor Statistics put the national unemployment rate at 5.3 percent in June.

“You know, somebody actually last week said we have a 40 percent unemployment [rate], so I’ve been saying 19 to 21 percent,” Mr. Trump said. “But somebody actually came out last week and said we have a 40 percent [rate], and they might very well be right.”